by Ethan Pearlmutter

In the book Zahrah the Windseeker by Nnedi Okorafor-Mbachu, Zahrah pushed past the idea that she was going to die, and if she died Dari might too. Zahrah snuck into the elgort’s nest, knowing very well she might not come out alive. She sneaks in with no plan to get out other than her flying, and her fear of heights shoots that plan full of holes. Zahrah still goes for the egg, knowing that she has no good plan of escape. She showed how brave she was by flying without fear. She also showed how much she wanted to save Dari by sneaking in and out of the elgort’s nest on pg. 142 ”Dari deserves a strong friend.” In this scene, Zahrah is looking for information about the elgort in her handbook for the jungle, when it has an error, and she decides to go in to get the egg, even though she has no information. This is a great example of her being brave and pushing past all of her fears. I think that this is one of the best examples of Zahrah being brave in the book. I think this because Zahrah is the closest to dying that she has ever been, and she stills runs in to save Dari.

Zahrah got stung by a whip scorpion, and she kept going even though she thought she would die. Zahrah got stung by a whip scorpion, and she thought she was going to die. Even through that, she did everything her greeny jungle handbook told her to keep the poison from spreading throughout her body. Also, she kept going to find food, and even though she couldn’t find any, she still held on. This showed how much she wanted to save Dari. This also showed how far Zahrah would go until she gave up. Through all this, the greeny jungle could not kill Zahrah no matter how hard it tried. Pg. 158, If you were cut by that infernal whip scorpion’s tail, you have good reason to worry. In this text evidence, Zahrah read that she was going to die, but she did everything she could to keep herself alive. This was a good example of Zahrah being brave because even though she was supposed to die, she did everything to keep herself alive.

Zahrah argued with a woodwit so that she could get food which could very well have killed her. Zahrah argued with a woodwit that could have killed her just because she needed food. The woodwit had a beehive on it, and the woodwit would have had her stung to death if the bees had agreed with it.  This was a good example of Zahrah pushing the boundaries and risking her life for Dari. When she did this she showed the strength of Zahrah’s friend with Dari and Zahrah’s bravery. Page 171, Then it said, “What will it be, survival and safety, or a chance to save your friend?” Zahrah chose a chance to save Dari, even though it could kill her. I think this shows how much Zahrah needs Dari as a friend. This also shows how brave Zahrah is.

Zahrah snuck into the elgort’s nest, and she did what she had to do to save Dari. Zahrah snuck into the elgort’s nest to get an egg that would save Dari. If she had gotten caught, she would have died in three bites. She snuck into the elgort’s cave and stole an unfertilized egg, and then flew away. When Zahrah did this she would not have gotten away if she was not able to fly and get past her fear of heights. She took the biggest risk of her life to do this, and she knew she had a huge chance to die. On page 242, “Zahrah, I can’t let you commit suicide.,” Nsibidi, another character, told Zahrah. What she was doing was suicidal. Zahrah continued, and she now knew with certainty that she was walking to her death. I believe this shows that Zahrah was going to do anything to keep Dari alive.

To conclude, Zahrah goes into the greeny jungle, not knowing what horrors await her in the location shrouded by mysteries and cut out of history books by the government of her country. She very well knows that this is the only way to save Dari, her best friend, from his endless coma, induced by a war snake. As she does this she shows the reader how brave she is to walk to a place that could be her death.